But that was before a twister 20 miles wide carved a path across three counties leaving 570 houses, businesses and mobile homes damaged or destroyed. More than 80 people were treated for injuries, Gov. Phil Bryant said at a news conference Monday, but no lives were lost and no one was unaccounted for.

On Sunday morning, Westminster filled with worshipers. A group of people came back that afternoon around 3 p.m. for the Meistersingers, a music presentation for the entire community, said pastor Steve Ramp, who has shepherded the 60-year-old church for the last decade.

Across the street and a few houses down, Ellen Chmiel was watching TV in her bedroom. She was going to her friend Eddie Simmons' house later that night, as he was cooking dinner. She decided to go a little early rather than waiting for him to finish cooking before she left.

Directly across the street, University of Southern Mississippi student Mandy Bake was having a relaxing afternoon, getting ready for classes to resume on Monday.

On his way back from National Guard drill in Gulfport, Jeff Revette, the pastor of the Living Word Church couldn't explain why, but he took a different way home and continued up U.S. 49 into Hattiesburg.

"It was God telling me I needed to keep going," he said.

Ramp wondered if the weather was too bad to hold the service. Little did he know less than an hour later his church would take a crippling, direct hit from a tornado that would also devastate the little houses that sit in the shadow of its steeple.

"By that time it was storming, and we didn't know if we should have it, but we did anyway," Ramp said. "They went home about 4:30, and about 5:20 was when this freight train came through here."

Bake, from Illinois, heard the freight train, too.

"My dad always told me tornadoes sound like a freight train, but I'd never heard one until yesterday," Bake said Monday.

Bake and her roommate took shelter in the bathroom.

"We sat in the bathtub and prayed, and we knew God would take care of us," she said.

As the storm loomed, Charlene Barefoot was trying to get to a meeting. Seeing the traffic and the debris in the air, she turned off Hardy Street to try to find a safe place to weather the storm.

Revette, having seen the tornado and watched the flashes of green and orange light as transformers blew up in its path, had just taken the same route.

The 20-year National Guardsman threw his vehicle into park and ran for a place where two walls of the church made a shelter of sorts.

"I was at the foot of the cross, literally, when you think the steeple was right there," he said. "I remember looking up and seeing the little white truck, and I saw (Revette's) face."

Barefoot credits Revette's clear thinking for saving her life. She said until she saw him leave his vehicle, she had planned to wait out the storm in her truck there on the road behind the church.

"I said, 'I need to go and get where the soldier's going because I know he knows what he was doing,' " she said. She couldn't get to the corner where Revette lay, but she was able to get to a culvert-like spot next to the church wall.

"I just laid there with my head down, and I could hear stuff go everywhere, and then I heard a big bang and I didn't hear anything else," she said. "And then I looked up, and I didn't see nothing. It was dark."

That's because a piece of the church wall had fallen on top of her hiding spot, covering it. Another piece of wall had fallen over where Revette hid.

The largest part of the church wall, built of cinderblocks covered in bricks, had landed on Barefoot's truck, crushing it flat.

"He's a miracle, and that woman had a guardian angel because her truck was leveled," Ramp said of the two survivors.

Gov. Bryant and other officials said the absence of deaths from the tornado was due in part to sirens that gave people as much as 30 minutes of warning.

Ramp said several other churches have offered to let his congregation use their facilities until the future of Westminster Presbyterian is clearer.

"I guess it teaches you not to get too attached to your things," he said. "And this is the season of Lent, a time of reflection and penance, and it's appropriate that we look deep into ourselves about this."

That's something Barefoot is already doing. "I would have never gotten out of that truck if I wouldn't have seen that soldier run," she said, her voice full of emotion.

Revette has done his own introspection as well.

"I'm grateful that I was used to help Charlene. I don't ever go home that way, and it's very humbling to recognize that God used me like that," he said.

Joby Bass' house on North 22nd Avenue in Hattiesburg was severely damaged, but everyone made it out safely. Bass said he was on his back porch when the tornado hit, and he quickly took refuge in his back bedroom.

Despite the damage, Bass said he plans to remain in the house until the insurance company can get around to assessing the situation.

"It's just a matter of cleaning up now, and I have a generator for electricity, so I'll be alright," he said. "If nothing else, all (these fallen trees) will make a good bonfire."

Rachel Graves and her daughter, Beth, were on Hardy Street traveling west when they saw the tornado approaching. They quickly turned into Bop's Frozen Custard and were ushered into the building by three of the store's employees. All five took refuge in the restaurant's bathroom while the storm blew out the building's windows.

"I've never been so scared in my life," Rachel Graves said. "I was sitting on the floor, texting my sister, telling her, 'Please, please pray for us,' because I didn't think I was coming out of that building."

Several Pine Belt businesses were wiped out by the tornado.

Ace Hardware on Main Street in Petal was destroyed, but store manager Kenneth Laird is optimistic about the store's future.

"It's a total loss -- it's gone," he said. "But the owner is talking to the insurance company right now, and he has every intention of rebuilding.

"If the insurance comes through like it should and like we hope, we plan on finding a temporary location while we're getting the new store built."

The tornado completely gutted Papa John's on U.S. 49. Several employees were still in the store when the tornado actually hit, according to general manager Jason Dick.

"They had to huddle in the cooler until the worst of it passed," he said. "But everybody's OK, and we're looking to build back up again in a few weeks."